A Freakonomics Radio Bleg: What’s Your Name?

Want to be part of an episode of Freakonomics Radio? We’re working on a podcast about names and we want to hear from readers and listeners about their own names — common ones, unusual ones, everything in between. So we’ve set up a voicemail line at 646-829-4478. Give us a call and tell us your full name, and then tell us a little bit about your first name – how you got it and what it means. Thanks!

Addendum: Thank you for all your emails and messages! Our line is now closed. Our names podcast will be out on 4/8/2013.

COMMENTS: 27

My father & grandfather are both named Cosmo. Apparently is a rather common name on Italy. In fact, thanks to my mother, I was the first male in the lineage without that name going back to motherland..I guess fatherland in this case.

My name isn’t too common. Although I’ve heard “Darian” or “Darien” pronounced like my name, I have yet to meet someone with it spelled like mine. The name seems to be pretty common for black males, but I am a white female. Even though it is a bit of a strange name to have, I am rarely teased about my name. To my surprise, it gets lots of compliments. People with common names are typically more successful. So far, I have been just as successful despite my uncommon name.

My name is Woody Crobar (both of those are the full name, not short for anything).

As the story goes my mother was looking for a unique name and saw it in magazine article.

My last name is a more interesting story. According to census data the name “Crobar” is virtually unheard of. In fact, my family is the only family in existence that appears to have this name (there are three families in North America that have this name, and we’re all related to each other). I don’t know the history of the name “Crobar” but I suspect that it was a rather boring “Americanization” of the name Krauberg or a related German name from when my family first arrived in America.

My name is Jwaan Adib, my mum is Iraqi and my dad is Kurdish/German. ‘Jwaan’ means beautiful in Kurdish language. I was born in England and so my parents had to find a suitable name that could be appropriate for the Brits, so I guess Jwaan was then made into Joanne, which is the spelling on my passport. It gets awkward introducing myself to new people because I’m never sure whether to go for Jwaan, Joanne or Jo. Depends on the audience I guess!